Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Changing the User Name in Existing Comments.

Changing the User Name in Existing Comments

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 31, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016

Denise notes that when she uses Track Changes and inserts a comment, the user's name shows in the comment. When she is ready to finalize the document, but with Track Changes still on, Denise wonders if she can go back and change the user name on one or more comments.

There are a couple of things you can do to make the changes. First, you could change the user name and initials to the name you want in the comments and then, effectively, recreate the comments. (You can copy the comment into the Clipboard and then paste it back into the document.) This has a downside, however, as the date and time stamp for the comment will be updated to reflect when you recreated the comment.

Perhaps a better approach is to use a macro to make the changes. When a comment is created, it is added to the Comments collection, which can be accessed through VBA. Each comment has Author and Initial properties that, respectively, represent the comment author's name and initials. The following macro is an example of how these can be changed:

Sub ChangeCommentAuthor()
    Dim J As Integer
    Dim sAuthorname As String
    Dim sInitial As String

    If Selection.Comments.Count = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No comments in your selection!", _
          vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Cannot perform action"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    sAuthorname = InputBox("New author name?", _
      "Comments Author Name")
    If sAuthorname = "" Then End

    sInitial = InputBox("New author initials?", _
      "Comments Initials")
    If sInitial = "" Then End

    With Selection
        For J = 1 To .Comments.Count
            .Comments(J).Author = sAuthorname
            .Comments(J).Initial = sInitial
        Next J
    End With
End Sub

All you need to do is make a selection that contains the comment you want to modify (select the text in the main document that includes the comment indicator) and then run the macro. Enter a new name and initials when prompted. When the macro is done running, it may not appear like anything has changed. If you save your document and reload it, you'll note that the comment author names have been changed as you indicated.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8614) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing the User Name in Existing Comments.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Quickly Copying Worksheets

Excel provides a little-known way to copy worksheets simply by clicking and dragging. Here's how to do it.

Discover More

Widening Multiple Columns Proportionally

It is easy to adjust the width of columns in Excel. It is much harder to adjust the width of a range of columns ...

Discover More

Documents Significantly Larger in Microsoft 365

As you move to a newer version of Word, you may notice that your documents all of a sudden require more disk space ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Moving Text to a New Footnote

For certain types of work, footnotes are a necessity. Word provides an easy way to create new footnotes, but what about ...

Discover More

Adding Comments to Your Document

If you would like to add non-printing notes to your document, the Comments feature is one way of doing that. Here's how ...

Discover More

Pasting a Comment into Your Document

When developing a document, you may end up with all sorts of comments that you need to deal with. One common task is to ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 7 - 6?

2023-11-17 11:39:28

Stephanie

Thanks!!! This macro worked 100% flawlessly and I never even use Macros and I was able to make it work!

2023-09-06 18:48:26

Jeremy

Many thanks.
In Word 2021 it changes instantly.
Jeremy

2021-10-07 13:33:02

David

Hello.

Is it possible to do the same with the name attached to changes made in the document with the track on ?

Instead of having each individuals name, I would like to have the same name everywhere (Team's name)

if it's possible, how ?

Thank you

2021-07-15 17:23:59

Kamran

For those of you who asked about changing the editor name for existing *edits* (as opposed to comments), here's the link to an amazing macro from a Word MVP:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-do-you-change-user-names-from-existing-track/b5ce17da-f763-4ca6-9f1c-47aff56b7c38

2021-06-15 16:33:27

Steve

Thanks! However, whenever I run this, the author name changes appropriately, but the Initials only change to the first letter of the new author name, despite the fact that the Initial property in VBA changes to the new value when assigned. When I close and reopen, the .Comment(I).Initial property for each comment will have the new value that the macro set previously, but the first letter of the author name is still what's displayed. Any thoughts? (This is Office 365.) Thanks again.

2020-07-16 05:41:42

Alan

Thank you so much for this - it's been a lifesaver

2018-11-12 01:31:43

Andrew

Awesome, thank you!!!

Would be great for an update to this macro that also changes the author for Additions/deletions, formating changes, ink etc.!

2018-08-21 15:23:23

Christine

This worked great! However, is there anyway to make it ask which author name to change? This would be helpful when there are multiple comments from different people, and you just need to change the one author all at once. We did it individually for each comment, which worked out - but in the future to be able to change all "AB" comments to "CD" at once would be great.

Thanks.

2018-04-24 16:10:50

Deborah

Thank you. This has been extremely useful for us in preparing documents for sharing with our clients.

Is there a way to change authorship for specific set of contributors, but leave "client" comments as is?

2018-01-25 19:03:08

Scott A

That was enormously helpful. Thank you for developing that and sharing it.

2018-01-09 10:50:53

Rachel

Wow. Perfect, even for a macro novice. Thank you!

2017-11-29 16:08:53

Fernando

This was SO helpful.

Thanks a lot!

2017-11-20 10:11:41

BenC

Hello Allen
Thanks it's very helpful.
Is there a way to do execute a VBA macro to perform the same User Name modifications but for all the changes in Track Changes mode?
One of my team member performed several changes on a document and me too but I would like to have all of them appear under the same name.
I know we could have changed our username at first but it's too late now :/

Thanks!

2017-11-16 14:05:33

Juanita H.

You have NO IDEA how incredibly useful this will be for my work. Thank you!

2017-11-02 13:22:04

CAROLINA HERNANDEZ

YOU ROCK.. HOW CAN I CHANGE ALSO THE NAME OR THE REVIEWS?

2017-09-03 21:24:40

Simon

That is gold - exactly the code I was looking for. Thank you!!

2017-08-21 08:53:29

Michael Schuler

This is a great macro; I was under the impression that the user ID for comments couldn't be revised. Is there any similar way to change the ID that appears for tracked changes in a selection?

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.